Jon Davies can claim victory for the UK when he takes to the stage on Thursday evening, welcoming Wikipedia’s most dedicated volunteers to Wikimania at London’s Barbican Centre.

Since he became chief executive of Wikimedia UK in October 2011, Davies has been campaigning for the annual event to be held in London, and has finally got his way. But, he told the Guardian, it’s indicative of the UK “punching above its weight, given that it already contributes 20% of all English-language Wikipedia articles”.

Born near Bristol, Davies was the first to head Wikimedia UK, appointed when the parent organisation of Wikipedia was formalising its local “chapters” of administrators and volunteers around the world.

The UK wing is based near Old Street in east London, and runs independently of the US, employing 17 staff during Wikimania and 250 members – administrators who volunteer their time for free.

Quietly spoken and modest with a teacherly manner, Jon Davies, 59, first worked as a film technician (he still edits Wikipedia pages on his pet subject of French cinema) before moving on to local government and primary school teaching. He spent several years in the charities sector, most recently as chief executive of Families Need Fathers.

His introduction to the world of Wikipedia from the outside came years earlier. “At the time I had a part-time job as a lecturer on French cinema. I joined like many do: I spotted a mistake, I dared to hit the edit button and didn’t destroy Wikipedia in the process. It was both scary and exciting.”

From there Davies worked as an volunteer editor, like the 15,000 other regular UK Wikipedia contributors. Under his leadership, Wikimedia UK became a registered charity in 2011, and is tasked with developing local expertise, bringing large institutions like museums, universities and the media on-board to open up works for free use on Wikipedia.

Wikimedia operates on the inside like Wikipedia does: every decision needs a democratic consensus and with passionate people with clear views, which means it can require considerable diplomacy and effort to get things moving.

The western English speaking world is well covered by articles on Wikipedia, but there is a definite gender bias.

“However neutral knowledge is, the way that people come at deciding on a subject is from their own experience and gender plays a key role in that process, especially when something like 85% of our editors are men,” said Davies.

Addressing the gender bias both among Wikipedia contributors and in articles about notable women is a priority for Wikimedia UK, says Davies.

The UK’s contribution to the Ada Lovelace initiative ran in October 2013 at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London, adding new articles to Wikipedia about a wide range of notable female scientists, technologists, mathematicians and engineers.

For now, his priority is using the surge of interest in Wikimania to recruit more staff and volunteers. “In a week’s time, if I’m still sane and no one has done anything terrible, then we’ll rate it as a big success.”